Adam Forkelid, Niklas Fernqvist, Daniel Fredriksson & Carl Mörner Ringström - Turning Point (2024)

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Adam Forkelid, Niklas Fernqvist, Daniel Fredriksson & Carl Mörner Ringström - Turning Point (2024)

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Following the 2021 release '1st Movement', hailed by Swedish National Radio as one of the best of the year, Adam Forkelid's latest upcoming work, 'Turning Point', offers a contemporary Nordic mirror into the journey of life. The music represents a sonic exploration of life's inevitable changes that make up each of our personal stories. Written across a month and recorded in a single day, the record showcases a poignant fusion of the piano and guitar - a collaborative interplay central to the record's identity. His expansive palette of influence includes flavors borrowed from classical composers Satie and Chopin, Brazilian and Cuban rhythms, to Bill Frisell and Chick Corea. Blending the acoustic jazz idiom with hints of electricity and a distinctive Nordic touch infuses the album with soulful, albeit energetic allure self-described as 'New Nordic Jazz'. From the stark melancholic textures synonymous with the Nordic sound to euphoric highs, Forkelid's compositions are grounded in jazz's rich history of songwriting. Marrying lyrical, memorable melodies with deep grooves and high-octane virtuosic improvisations, the composer feels the role of his music is to 'to move people and give them something relatable, not being specifically forward looking or retrospective, but just to be here and now'.

Life changes. Feelings change. Music changes. Sometimes, you reach a turning point of some kind. Whenever this happens, the story of your life depends on where you begin and end the chapters. Are things changing for the better or for the worse, or both, or neither? We might not know until we see everything in retrospect, and even then we might not be quite sure. But in the end, these turning points define our stories. Recorded in just one day this music tries to catch an emotion that was fleeting in the air. It came about both with ease and through struggle. At the end we're left with fragments of all the feelings, thoughts and Life changes. Feelings change. Music changes. Sometimes, you reach a turning point of some kind. Whenever this happens, the story of your life depends on where you begin and end the chapters. Are things changing for the better or for the worse, or both, or neither? We might not know until we see everything in retrospect, and even then we might not be quite sure. But in the end, these turning points define our stories. Recorded in just one day this music tries to catch an emotion that was fleeting in the air. It came about both with ease and through struggle. At the end we're left with fragments of all the feelings, thoughts and experiences it's given us, and after a while it becomes a memory.

"…this album will be surprising for those of you who are not yet familiar with this artist; for others, it is a highly anticipated masterpiece. … Adam Forkelid is the perfect musical synthesis between Joe Zawinul regarding his solo career as a pianist and Wayne Shorter; like them, he possesses an immense musical culture and stands as a visionary … We receive a lot of very good albums from pianists and composers; as far as Europe is concerned, Adam Forkelid is well above his peers, offering us here an album as useful for our intellect as it is “indispensable."

"Adam Forkelid’s jazz has no boundaries and does not see or will see a date. Once again, partly due to the choice of an acoustic configuration that brings a groove to each track, which generally is the work of American artists, what sets him apart is his way of writing music, of thinking about it, which makes him unique. We receive a lot of very good albums from pianists and composers; as far as Europe is concerned, Adam Forkelid is well above his peers, offering us here an album as useful for our intellect as it is “indispensable.” (Thierry De Clemensat, Move Jazz, Paris)

Adam Forkelid, piano
Carl Mörner Ringström, guitar
Niklas Fernqvist, double bass
Daniel Fredriksson, drums